A member of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints' (LDS) Quorum of Twelve Apostles claimed last
week that the Mormon Church has “no homosexual members.”

During a Q&A in Chile, Elder David
A. Bednar was asked: “How can homosexual members of the church live
and remain steadfast in the gospel?”

“First, I want to change the
question,” Bednar
answered. “There are no homosexual members of the church. We
are not defined by sexual attraction. We are not defined by sexual
behavior. We are sons and daughters of God. And all of us have
different challenges in the flesh.”

“Simply being attracted to someone of
the same gender is not a sin,” he explained. “It is when we act
on the inclination or the attraction, that's when it becomes a sin.”

“We do not discriminate and we are
not bigots. We extend Christ-like love to all sons and daughters of
God,” he added.

Last year, the Mormon Church, a vocal
opponent of marriage equality, announced that it considers gay
married Mormons apostates, which could lead to excommunication.